What does Romans 5:2 mean?

In this first part of Romans 5, Paul describes what has happened for those who have, by faith in Christ, been justified before God. In the previous verse, he wrote that we have—right now, currently and forever—peace with God. We are no longer His enemies or objects of His wrath because of our sin (Ephesians 2:3). As shown in prior passages, this only applies to those who have expressed faith in God, as exemplified by Abraham. The "we" used here is a reference to believers.

Now Paul adds that, also through Christ, we have obtained the most important thing in the universe: access to the grace of God by our faith in Christ. Grace means a good thing that is not deserved. What each of us deserved, because of our sin, was God's angry judgment. What we've been given, instead, is God's grace.

Through faith in Jesus, we stand in that grace. What is our response as we come to understand that? We should rejoice, knowing we have the absolutely certain hope of participating in the glory of God forever. Paul wrote previously that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). God's glory is Himself and all that is His. Now that we have been justified and our sins forgiven, we will experience God's glory fully and forever. Rejoicing over that is exactly the appropriate response.

When Paul uses the word "hope" in Romans, it's important to understand the term. In this context, he's not talking about something that might happen, something like, "I hope I get a present for my birthday." Instead, "hope" means looking forward with expectation to something, even though we can't see it, yet.